Thanks, Hans, for your advice.

> a probably more reliable solution is to 'remove bad stuff' from the

> loaded font by running over the features and removing bad matches

> (which is less sensitive for order)

I could edit the font features, indeed, but I run a GNU/Linux OS, and Fontforge cannot edit nor generate variable fonts. There seems to be a solution (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoQuWARCUWI ), but so far beyond my technical capabilities that I cannot consider it.

> is that really a google font? afaik it doesn't originate there (unless

> it among those things that google grabs - and at some point possible

> discards)

Yes, it is, but not from the beginning. A great Garamond, the original font was designed by Georg Duffner. A few years ago, Google decided to make it a more complete font family : Octavio Pardo has done an excellent job with the bolder versions of EB Garamond and its conversion to a variable font. However, for whatever reasons, he did quite a rush job with the OpenType features ! Many essential features are lacking (despite the needed glyphs still being there), and most present features are poorly implemented, with a lot of typographic nonsense (concerning long s and long Q or the mentioned italic ligatures, for instance).

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/EB+Garamond

I will contact Google Fonts shortly to report on the dozens of problems I have encountered that make the unfixed new version of EB Garamond unusable for anything but the most basic uses.

Fortunately, my significantly more demanding needs for a client were met with the invaluable help from LuaTeX, but that won't be enough for my own projects, much more complex (facsimile of ancient editions), until Google improves this font.

Thomas Savary

1 le Grand-Plessis

F-85340 L’Île-d’Olonne

Tél. 06 22 82 61 34

https://compo85.fr/